LaTeX Math Mode / Equations Inline in Chat
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- PHP
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Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Discussions with my colleagues/students often involve math equations. For this, it is convenient to have the ability to write out math formulas (notably including sub/super-scripts, summations, and formatted parentheses). it is common to use LaTeX notation (e.g., $\sum_i A_i \cdot B_i$) for this purpose, but especially in chats it can be frustrating to try to quickly write and interpret complex equations.
Describe the solution you'd like
When chat message is posted with bracketed with dollar signs (e.g., $equation_i$), it would be helpful if clients rendered the bracketed text as a LaTeX formula. Javascript libraries like MathJax already exist for this purpose.
Describe alternatives you've considered
- Currently we use both RocketChat for chat and NextCloud for files. RocketChat is significantly more difficult than NextCloud to maintain, but has support for inline LaTeX formulas.
- Pidgin (multi-protocol chat client) has plugins that will render LaTeX equations, but all participants (who want to see inlined math) need to be using the same client.
- Riot/Matrix has a pending proposal to include LaTeX rendering, but it appears to have been stuck in the planning phase for a long time.
Additional context
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
No files or tests are named. Start by locating the chat message rendering entry point and reviewing how MathJax could be integrated for dollar-delimited formulas. Done means supported inline LaTeX expressions render correctly in chat without breaking ordinary message text.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript, latex
- Domain
- frontend, web-dev
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100